Day 57 - Wiarton (Rest Day)

0 km - Total so far  4,714.03 km

Ride and Hike to Bruce Caves: http://ridewithgps.com/trips/5778358

The first vehicle off the ferry in South Baymouth on Friday morning was, as some have guessed accurately, was the lone cyclist.

The first vehicle off the ferry being welcomed by Daniel

Today was a rest day (as defined by Hélène). We learned from our trip to Gaspésie last year that a rest day (or journée libre) is a day with only a small amount of cycling combined with some other type of physical activity. Today our rest day consisted of an 11 km bike ride (22 km round trip) to Bruce's Caves Conservation Area which is located uphill 5 km East of Wiarton. I make it sound terrible but it was not.

Once we got to the parking lot, we locked the bikes and tried to figure out which trail to take as none of the trails are well marked. We decided to take the least well marked trail and the one that said nothing about caves. It has happened quite a few times on the trip that we made substantial detours because the sign said "Point of Interest" only to find noting interesting to look at. So now we take the contrairian view that if it is not well advertised, it has to be good!

Road leading to Bruce's Caves Conservation Area

We stumbled onto the first cave after one kilometer or so and it was pretty impressive. We kept walking along the path and found another cave, and another one after that and two more after that. What was also very impressive where the huge boulders that we had to walk over and around. Also impressive where the cedar trees that just clung to the rocks and the thin layer of dirt and just grew in all sorts of funny shapes and sizes. 

The first of the caves, there were about 5 of them in ever decreasing sizes

View from inside cave number 1

Another view from inside cave number 1

Cave number 2

Cave number 3

Hard to fit the bicycle in here 

Flower of the day

Almost impossible to stop, you want to see what is around the corner

Amazing how a cedar can just hang on and grow

Whose roots belong to what tree

The whole time we were walking along the rock face and amongst the large boulders, we could hear people above us walking above the escarpment. We kept walking farther than most people do in hope of finding a place to climb up to the escarpment. We did find a place where we thought we could climb but got to a point were we were just not comfortable enough to take a chance.  We decided to climb back down and return the same way we came in. We made it back to a place where we had seen other hikers higher up on the escarpment who had told us that the trail where they were looped back to the parking lot. After studying the rock for a while, we decided to give it a try and climb up. There were many more footholds and handholds than our previous attempt and we slowly and safely made it to the top onto the actual Bruce Trail. This bit was pretty much like any other walking trail and did not show any of the large boulders or amazing cedars we had seen below on the escarpment. At one spot, we saw hikers down below at one of the caves and told them not to turn around just yet as there was much more too see. We saw them a while later at the parking lot and they had ignored our advice. They would have been amazed by what was there to be seen.

We tried to climb to the top of the escarpment but it was safer to turn around and walk back

Weird looking tree

More roots than the trees above and this is for a single tree

Tomorrow's route towards Owen Sound and beyond along Georgian Bay and without much traffic, we hope!

We made it back nice and dirty and stopped in at Tim Horton's to have a cup of dark roast coffee (the one that tastes like McDonald's coffee).

0 miles - Total so far 2,929.16 miles